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Trying to update to macOS Monterey 12.7 (and Safari 17.0), but get the message below. I've cleared a lot of space (moving pictures to an external drive, etc.). I've seen several more posts like this - but I am still striking out.
MacBook Pro (2017 – 2020)
Your hard drive is full. That Storage display is worthless. Notice that it says you have 127 GB "Available". Yet the error dialog says that you do not have enough "free space". You would think "available" and "free" would be the same, wouldn't you? They aren't. Run Disk Utility to see the actual amount of free storage.
With only 250 GB of storage, you have to be hyper-aggressive about deleting and archiving files. A few pictures isn't enough.
Also, after deleting files, you'll need to wait a day or so until the really get deleted.
Your hard drive is full. That Storage display is worthless. Notice that it says you have 127 GB "Available". Yet the error dialog says that you do not have enough "free space". You would think "available" and "free" would be the same, wouldn't you? They aren't. Run Disk Utility to see the actual amount of free storage.
With only 250 GB of storage, you have to be hyper-aggressive about deleting and archiving files. A few pictures isn't enough.
Also, after deleting files, you'll need to wait a day or so until the really get deleted.
Thank you! I knew I was missing something.
By running Disk Utility, I saw that only ~13 GB were actually free and then by funning "First Aid", I was able to get that to 123 GB! (I deleted ~17K pictures/videos - actually moved them to an external drive).
Now I am able to run the update.
Don't try and just barely meet the minimum space required admonition. If you do only that, you'll be full all over again soon enough once you update.
macOS needs 15-20% of total unused disk space at all times to run efficiently. Sometimes to run at all and not bog down.
On my 2016 MBP with a 256 GB "smallish" drive, I elected to limit the internal drive to basically the system only. External drives are used to hold data: 2TB HDD for long term storage and a 500GB SSD for things I do often. It's just not worth it to worry about loading up a small disk.
The MBP is dedicated to streaming so portability is not a concern. Still, portability notwithstanding, "unused" space is important.
Disk First Aid? Thanks for the follow-up. That might help other people who are stuck with the same problem.
Software Update - Your disk does not have enough free space - but there seems to be plenty
